


Night Terrors

by Blizzard96



Category: A.C.E (Beat Interactive Band)
Genre: Gen, Monsters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-13 05:06:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16886178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blizzard96/pseuds/Blizzard96
Summary: Kang Yuchan has monsters under his bed. Luckily, they're pretty nice and can be persuaded with the power of friendship. And fried chicken. Mostly fried chicken, if Yuchan's being honest.





	Night Terrors

_Yuchan, age 6_

 

“Mom,” Yuchan said seriously, “There are monsters under my bed.” His mother looked down at where he’d latched onto her leg, refusing to take a single step over the threshold into his room. The young boy’s eyes were locked onto the blankets covering the edge of his bed, blocking the gap between the frame and the carpet from view. Unfortunately his mother didn’t seem to take his words very seriously, instead smiling and reaching down to ruffle his hair.

“There are no monsters,” she assured him. “We can even check together.” To Yuchan’s horror, she gently pried her leg from his grasp and stepped into his room. She lifted the blankets despite Yuchan’s numerous protests and pleas for her to come back. To drive home her point, she even got down on her knees and peered under the bed before turning back to Yuchan. “Come see!” She motioned him forward. He shook his head stubbornly a few times, but her patient prodding eventually wore him down.

Yuchan hesitantly took a few steps into the room before rushing to his mother’s side. She tilted her head toward where the blankets had been lifted up. Surely his mother wouldn’t do this to him if she thought it was dangerous, right? Yuchan took a deep breath before ducking down and looking under the bed quickly with his mother right beside him.

It was almost anticlimactic how there wasn’t anything really down there. Just a few toys, including a baseball he’d thought he’d lost earlier that week, some old books, and a lone sock. His mother wrinkled her nose at the sock.

“So that’s where that went,” she muttered, straining to grab the article of clothing before scooting backward. Yuchan rushed to follow, and not a moment too soon as his mother dropped the blankets back into place. “I was looking for this when I did the laundry.” She got to her feet and looked back at Yuchan. “See? Nothing to be scared of.”

Yuchan nodded hesitantly. “Okay.” She set the sock on his dresser and helped him get into bed before pulling up the covers.

She gave him a concerned look. “Are you sure you’ll be okay, Yuchannie?”

He nodded slowly. “Nothing's there.”

“That’s right,” his mother smiled, “there’s nothing there. You were very brave. Do you want me to put your night light on?”

Yuchan shook his head quickly. “No! That’s for babies!”

“Alright,” his mother said, raising an eyebrow in amusement. She dropped a kiss on his forehead and retrieved the sock before walking to the door and switching the light off. “Good night then.”

“Um!” Yuchan said suddenly. His mother turned back. “Can you leave the hall light on though?”

She laughed. “Of course.” And then she was gone, leaving the door open just a bit so that a sliver of light could shine through.

 

* * *

 

Unfortunately, the hall light couldn’t stay on all night. His dad had absentmindedly switched it off when he’d gone to bed, and now Yuchan was left in the dark with his only light source being the moonlight coming through his bedroom window. He shivered as the shadows grew longer and more twisted with the passing moments. Yuchan could feel he was exhausted, sleep tugging his eyelids down every few seconds, but every time he shut his eyes a scratching noise or a bump or a creak would jolt him awake.

His eyes darted to the shadows on his wall, seeming to distort as his vision blurred. Yuchan rubbed his eyes quickly and the shadows retreated. “There’s no such thing as monsters,” he muttered, pulling the blankets up over his head and hiding beneath them. He almost considered calling out for his mom, but he was a big boy and she probably wouldn’t believe him anyway.

Yuchan held his breath as he listened to the whispering noises coming from under his bed. They began to grow in volume and intensity. His mom had said before that it was just the house settling for the night when he’d mentioned similar occurrences last week, but he knew it was definitely the voice of some sort of monster or maybe even a bunch of monsters. He finally risked a peek out from under the covers, and immediately regretted it as he watched two spindly dark forms that resembled clawed hands extend from under the bed and climb the wall. Yuchan felt the terror building in his chest until he couldn’t contain it anymore. He screamed.

 

* * *

 

“You’re stupid,” Donghun said, sticking yet another bandaid on Jun’s knee. Jun had fallen earlier that day trying to climb one of the ladders to the human realm (again) and ended up being caught and brought back home by one of the city patrollers (also again). Luckily Jun’s parents hadn’t been home at the time and he’d narrowly escaped a lecture and subsequent grounding from his mother. Now the two of them were sitting on the sidewalk outside of Jun’s house with the first aid kit that Jun had managed to sneak out of his parent’s bathroom.

“Stupid’s a mean word!” Jun replied, sticking his forked tongue out in Donghun’s direction. Donghun thought he was so smart because he was a year older than Jun (and thus a grade higher), but Jun knew more about the human world and that was obviously better than any dumb old book learning in class.

“Well, you are,” Donghun said. “You almost broke your horn this time.” Jun instinctively reached up to protectively cup his bandaged fingers around the horn on the left side of his head, barely longer than a baby carrot at this point though his mother assured him they would grow in more as he got older.

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

“Did too!” 

Donghun dabbed the soap on Jun’s other knee with a little more force than necessary to make his point, causing the other to flinch.

“Ow!” Jun whined, tears involuntarily springing to his eyes. “That hurt!”

His best friend frowned and the small leathery wings on Donghun’s back drooped. “Sorry.” Donghun stuck the bandaid on a lot gentler that time.

“It’s okay,” Jun murmured. They sat on the sidewalk quietly for a few more minutes while Donghun finished patching up Jun’s various scrapes.

“What’s so great about the human world anyway?” Donghun asked, putting the box of bandaids, now half empty, and bottle of soap back in the first aid kit. “My mom says all of them are loud and smelly, and all they do is cry and scream.”

“But it’s a whole different world!” Jun said, throwing his hands up. “Don’t you want to find out what they look like for yourself?”

“We already have pictures of them,” Donghun argued. “They’re in all of our class textbooks. And they’re boring. No wings, no scales, no horns, no tails, nothing.” He got up and picked up the kit. “We get to go anyway when we’re fourteen. My mom says we have to be patient until then.” Jun rolled his eyes at the response.

He got to his feet, wincing at how the scrapes on his knees and palms still stung. “I’m going again tomorrow,” he insisted stubbornly.

Donghun rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

“Come with me!” Jun said.

“For the millionth time, no!” Donghun replied, throwing his arms up and nearly sending the first aid supplies flying. Jun crossed his arms and pouted. He counted silently in his head, waiting Donghun out, and smiled when his friend caved before he reached ten. “Fine! But just to keep you out of trouble ‘cause I’m older!”

Jun grinned. “We won’t get in trouble! I have another plan!”

 

* * *

 

“This is a bad plan,” Donghun said. He glanced around the street warily, but all was quiet at sundown. This time of day was too late for most day dwelling monsters, but still too early for the nocturnal ones. By all rights Donghun should be at home getting ready for sleep, but here he was sneaking out of his house and risking his parents wrath to be shivering next to a huge steel ladder leading up to the human realm.

“No, it’s not,” Jun insisted, “Byeongkwan says the guards never patrol this entrance because it’s too far away from their normal routes. There’s no way we’ll get caught!”

“They don’t patrol here,” Byeongkwan confirmed, sleek tan tail waving around wildly. He then turned to Sehyoon. “What do you think a human actually looks like in real life?” Donghun despaired that Jun had somehow managed to rope their other friends into his scheme, though Byeongkwan and Sehyoon probably didn’t need that much convincing. The duo always seemed to be getting into trouble and anything that went wrong in their neighborhood could usually be blamed on them.

“I hear they’re squishier,” Sehyoon replied thoughtfully. He tapped his claws against the smooth scales plating his arms.

Byeongkwan frowned. “Like the Blob?” Donghun grimaced at the thought of the formless creature that sat on the side of the road that they were forced to pass each day on their way to school. It had been slowly oozing toward the classroom, but the staff all seemed confident that it would be many years before the creeping goop would reach the building. 

“No, they still have bones,” Jun said, “Remember the pictures in class?”

“I slept through that,” Byeongkwan said, not even slightly embarrassed. They all  then looked to the ladder. It somehow seemed to climb even further than Donghun had initially thought. It traveled upward until it disappeared into the darkness of the sky.

“Alright, I’m going first!” Jun announced, grabbing the first rung of the ladder. Donghun saw the boy wince minutely as his palms hit the ladder, but Jun hid it well.

“What? No fair! I wanna go!” Byeongkwan whined, tail twitching agitatedly. He tugged at Jun’s shirt, but the horned boy clung to the ladder with all his strength.

“We could do rock paper scissors,” Sehyoon offered. Donghun gave him a look, but the scaled boy just shrugged. Clearly, he wasn’t going to stop their friends’ bickering any time soon. Donghun’s wings itched in agitation, the responsibility of being the oldest falling heavily on his ten year old shoulders.

“I think Jun should go,” Donghun said decisively, his tone leaving no room for argument. The pair in front of him stopped shoving at each otherr. Jun beamed while Byeongkwan gave Donghun a betrayed expression. “He’s the least scary if we end up meeting a human.”

“Hey!” Jun protested, swatting at Donghun. 

“Fine, but I’m second!” Byeongkwan said, eventually giving in. The matter settled, Donghun watched Jun bite his lip before grabbing the next rung of the ladder and slowly start climbing, gaining confidence as he went. Byeongkwan barely waited for Jun’s feet to clear his head before grabbing onto the ladder himself. Donghun followed, ducking his head every so often to avoid the other boy’s swinging tail, while Sehyoon brought up the rear.

They climbed for what felt like hours to Donghun. The air got colder the further up they went and it quickly became darker, forcing his eyes to switch to night vision. Though Donghun didn’t want to admit it, he felt like the black empty air around them was closing in on him. His wings shivered violently. Donghun could barely see the rungs and Byeongkwan’s feet above him at this point.

“Are we there yet?” Byeongkwan whined, though there was a tremor in his voice betraying his own hesitation. “My arms hurt.”

Donghun’s own arms and legs ached in agreement. “Jun!” he called up, “What do you see?”

“We’re almost there!” Jun yelled back distantly. “I can see some light!” That gave them all the last needed burst of energy to make it to the top. Donghun almost ran into Byeongkwan when he suddenly stopped.

“Hey, keep moving!” Donghun said.

“I can’t! Jun stopped,” Byeongkwan argued.

“Shhhh!” Jun hissed, causing their bickering to abruptly cease. “We’re under something. I almost banged my head on it.”

“Under something?” Byeongkwan whispered.

“Must be a bed entrance,” Donghun muttered, frowning. In his class they had been taught about the many different entrances to the human world including closets, attics, basements, and even air vents. The instructor had glossed over the bed entrances, only giving a brief overview on the pathways as a whole, but Donghun had heard his parents complaining at the dinner table about the tight squeeze of bed entrances in the past.

“So what now?” Sehyoon asked. They all paused.

“We could go back,” Donghun suggested. “We know what the entrance is. We could do some more research before going to the human realm.”

“But we said we wanted to see a human!” Jun said, “We have to keep going! Also, I don’t wanna be on this ladder anymore.” Apparently Byeongkwan agreed with that sentiment since it sounded like he nudged Jun upward based on Jun’s hiss of protest. 

They started moving again shortly thereafter, Donghun climbing after Byeongkwan until the other’s feet suddenly disappeared. Donghun’s hand swiped at empty air where the next rung should be. His stomach lurched and he quickly latched back onto the previous rung, wings fluttering as fast as his heartbeat. He let out a breath before reaching up tentatively again, only for his hand to brush the bottom of a wooden frame. 

“This way,” Jun’s voice hissed, grabbing Donghun’s hand and guiding him off the ladder to where he was sliding across a plush carpet. He had to get on his stomach to avoid hitting his head against the bottom of what he assumed was the bed. His eyes adjusted to the darkness of their new environment, and he could just barely make out Jun and Byeongkwan on their stomachs next to him. They all scooted over as Sehyoon reached the top, and Donghun helped him in the same way. The boy muttered a quiet thanks.

“We did it!” Jun whispered excitedly. “We made it to the human world!” Donghun blinked as the reality of what they just did hit him. His stomach clenched with both nerves and excitement. They were going to be in so much trouble if they got caught, but this was also a chance to explore a realm that he had only heard about in class before. Part of him wanted to get out and see what he could find, no matter how many rules from his realm he’d be breaking.

“Do you think we can go around the house?” Byeongkwan asked, and Donghun could practically hear his tail swishing back and forth. “How many people live here? Are there kids?”

“Of course there are kids,” Sehyoon whispered. “There has to be if there’s an entrance here.” They all froze as there was a rustling above them, indicating someone was moving on the bed.

“There’s no such thing as monsters,” they heard a tiny voice whisper. The speaker sounded young and probably was a boy if Donghun had to guess. They all waited with bated breath, but there was no more movement above them. Donghun relaxed minutely as the minutes passed, the kid hopefully going back to sleep.

“I’m gonna go check,” Jun said. 

“No,” Donghun hissed back, “What are you gonna do if he’s not asleep?”

“We’ll just go back under the bed and close the entrance!” Jun said. “He won’t notice anyway cause it’s dark!”

“Still a bad idea!”

“Shut up, I’m gonna do it.” And before Donghun could stop him, Jun was already melting into the shadows and sliding out from under the bed in the darkness. Donghun gritted his teeth as he watched Jun’s shadow move out from under the bed and begin creeping up the wall. 

‘We are in so much trouble,’ he thought. 

Apparently the boy wasn’t asleep, as barely a second later there was a high pitched scream.

 

* * *

 

If he had a time machine, Jun probably would have done something else in that moment, but all his nine year old brain could think of was “MAKE THE SCREAMING STOP”. Using his speed and reflexes honed by years of trying to sneak cookies from the kitchen, Jun immediately launched his shadow form at the young boy’s face, cutting off the scream as quickly as it began. Luckily, it seemed as though he’d been fast enough as no one came running to the boy’s room. The boy tugged fruitlessly at the shadow, but his fingers passed through it like smoke. 

Jun’s vision as a shadow was a bit limited, everything happening in a kind of murky haze, but he noticed when his three friends crawled out from under the bed in various states of shock. Byeongkwan was staring at him open mouthed, while Donghun looked thoroughly baffled by the whole situation. Sehyoon… well, Jun could never read the other boy, but if he had to make a guess he’d say that Sehyoon was vaguely amused.

Donghun recovered first and scowled, which Jun thought was pretty uncalled for as he was just doing his best. “Get off his face, Jun!”

It was unfair that Jun couldn’t argue as a shadow, because he would have explained that the second he let go of the boy’s face, he’d probably start screaming again.

“No, he’ll start screaming again!” Byeongkwan said. Jun silently thanked him for either understanding Jun’s actions or conveniently developing telepathy. Just in case it was the latter, Jun began broadcasting ‘Cough if you can hear me’ thoughts. He was relieved when the other didn’t respond to them.

“That’s creepy,” Sehyoon added unhelpfully. Amidst all of this, the boy Jun had latched onto was starting to soundlessly cry. He looked really young by human standards, and Jun felt bad for a brief moment.

“What if he promises not to scream?” Donghun said, turning to the kid. “We’ll let you go if you don’t scream, okay? We’re not going to hurt you.” The boy Jun was latching onto scrambled back on the bed as soon as he was addressed, trying to get as far away from the monsters as possible. His would be screams had turned into huge gulping sobs. They gave him a few minutes to calm down, all of them remaining quiet and immobile, until he finally nodded.

“Jun, get off him. I think he can’t answer us,” Byeongkwan said. Jun paused for a moment before sliding off of the boy’s face and slipping down from the bed to the ground in a pool at Donghun’s feet.

“Gross,” Donghun said.

Jun reformed in front of him. “Mean.” He turned back to the now completely terrified kid on the bed. “Sorry,” he offered. “I wasn’t going to hurt you, but you were screaming really loud. I’m sorry.” The boy just shook his head as Jun tried to get closer. Jun immediately stepped back, apologizing again.

“What’s your name?” Sehyoon asked, drawing the boy’s attention. Apparently the boy found him the least threatening because his body unconsciously leaned toward him.

“Yuchan,” the boy said. His eyes darted to all of them in turn. “Are you monsters?”

“Yes,” Jun said. To his confusion, the boy frowned at that.

“Monsters aren’t real,” Yuchan said. “My mom says so, and she’s always right.”

Byeongkwan bristled. “We are real! We live down there!” He pointed under the bed. Yuchan looked horrified.

“All of you live under my bed?!”

“Yes!” Byeongkwan said confidently.

“No!” Donghun countered, shooting Byeongkwan a look. “It’s hard to explain. We all live in another world. There are some entrances that are made from our world into yours, and one just happens to be under your bed. But no, the whole realm isn’t under your bed.” He paused, giving Yuchan a second to take that in.

“How do you make the entrances?” Yuchan asked, starting to relax a bit. His curiosity was clearly starting to overtake his initial terror.

Donghun paused. “I, uh, don’t know,” he admitted, wings flapping in embarrassment. “They haven’t told us in history class yet.”

“Monsters have to go to school?” Yuchan asked, making a face. Byeongkwan and Sehyoon both snickered at that.

“Yeah, it sucks!” Byeongkwan blurted while Sehyoon nodded in agreement.

“Don’t say it sucks!” Jun said. “Sucks is a bad word!”

“You suck!”

“Don’t say that!”

“Then you stink!”

"You stink!"

They both paused as they heard a tiny laugh, both of them turning to see Yuchan smiling for the first time. The tension between the five of them finally broke, and soon they were all giggling together. Jun felt some of the weight he’d been carrying since he’d latched onto Yuchan leave at the possibility that this might not blow up in all of their faces. After a few minutes of laughing (there had been other points where it almost ended, but then they would look at each other and that would send them off into another round of laughter) Yuchan crawled to the edge of the bed to sit in front of them. 

“You guys aren’t that scary,” he said.

Byeongkwan puffed his chest out. “I’m super terrifying!” he insisted. “I always get good grades in my scaring classes.” 

Yuchan tilted his head and squinted. “Really? But you just have a tail.”

“I can do more! Watch!” Byeongkwan opened his mouth to reveal all of his sharp teeth, extended curved claws from his fingertips, and made all the hair on his tail stand on end while his eyes went slit pupiled. “And I can do this!” His eyes abruptly went bright glowing red. Unfortunately, this didn’t have the desired effect as Yuchan was more intrigued than scared.

“Whoa!” Yuchan said, getting closer. “Are those like contacts? Can you see in the dark?”

Byeongkwan looked a little put out from the lack of response, claws retracting, but quickly rallied under the attention. “No, they aren’t contacts, and yes I can!” His tail swayed. “When I get older, my mom says that I’ll be able to make the scratching noises appear out of thin air! And I’ll be able to slash through metal!”

“Why would you want to do that?” Donghun asked.

Byeongkwan shrugged. “Why not?” He had a point, which Donghun begrudgingly conceded.

Yuchan looked to the other monsters excitedly. “Can you all do different things?”

Donghun nodded. “All monsters are different, just like humans are different.” He turned so that his small wings were visible on his back. “I’ll be able to fly someday. And I can turn into a bat! I can only hold the bat form for a few minutes though.”

“Are you a vampire then?” Yuchan asked.

Donghun rolled his eyes. “No. Vampires are jerks.”

“They are?”

“They don’t share well, and they think they’re better than everyone else because they have the most movies about them.”

“Oh,” Yuchan said, eyes wide. He looked to Jun. “And you turn into a shadow?”

Jun beamed. “Yep! And I’ll get bigger horns! And someday I’ll be able to completely take over a room and fill everyone in it with para…paren…” He struggled for the word his father had used to explain his powers to him.

“Paranoia,” Donghun whispered. Jun’s father had explained to Jun in the past that the feeling was like a million eyes were watching you at once. His father then demonstrated the ability himself. Needless to say, that had ruined the atmosphere for the rest of that particular family dinner.

“Yeah that!” Jun said.

“And you?” Yuchan finally asked Sehyoon.

Sehyoon blinked. “I can do this.” He set his hands against the wall before beginning to climb straight up it like a spider. The moonlight glinted eerily off his scales, and even Donghun was a little unnerved when Sehyoon reached the ceiling to hang upside down from it. “It makes me dizzy when I stay up here too long though.” He pried his feet off the wall to dangle over Yuchan’s bed before dropping the short distance to the mattress, causing Yuchan to bounce on the impact. The younger boy giggled.

Yuchan’s impressed expression was new feeling for all the monsters. All of their classes up to this point clearly stated that the humans should be screaming (or at least shivering) in terror of them, but Jun privately thought that this admiration made him feel a lot better about himself. “Wow, I wish I could do all of that.”

“Have you tried?” Byeongkwan asked, tilting his head to the side.

Yuchan thought for a moment. “Actually, I haven’t.”

“No time like the present!”

 

* * *

 

Yuchan woke up the next morning to his mother shaking him. He sat bolt upright, but the four monsters from the previous night were completely gone. Another look around the room revealed that the only thing out of place were his bedsheets which were a wreck from when he’d tried to jump from the bed in an attempt to sprout wings like Donghun. Needless to say, it hadn’t worked and said monster had barely managed to catch him in time before he hit the ground.

“Start getting dressed, Yuchannie,” his mother said. She squinted at him with worry. “Did you sleep alright?”

Yuchan felt exhausted, he’d been up way past his bedtime, but he smiled anyway. “Yes!” She gave him another once over, but eventually seemed convinced by how good a mood Yuchan was in.

“Alright. Come downstairs for breakfast when you’re done.” She left the room quickly after that, closing the door behind her. 

Immediately, Yuchan jumped off the bed and pulled up the covers to look under the frame, only to frown. The monsters weren’t hiding there either. After a few minutes of fruitless searching both under his bed and in his closet, he was forced to face the fact that his new friends were gone. Had he dreamed them up? He drooped a bit at that and began getting ready for school in a disappointed daze. 

He sluggishly trudged down the stairs to the breakfast table to see his mother give him another concerned look. “Are you sure you’re okay? You can stay home if you’re feeling sick.” She leaned over and placed the back of her hand against his forehead to check his temperature.

“I’m fine,” Yuchan said unconvincingly. “I just had a nightmare.”

“Oh honey,” his mother said, moving in to hug him. “You know you can come get your dad or I if you have a nightmare, right?”

Yuchan nodded. “Uh-huh. I’ll tell you next time.”

Satisfied, his mother sat back in her chair. “Eat your breakfast. We’re already running a bit behind, so you’ll have to brush your teeth and get back down here quickly.” They both finished breakfast quickly, and Yuchan went back upstairs to finish getting ready and pack his bag. He was searching for his worksheet, only to find it under the bed.

“Yuchan, hurry up!” his mother called from downstairs. He rushed to shove his homework in his backpack, wrinkling the sheet in his haste. He was just zipping up his bag when his mother opened the door. “Oh good. You ready?”

“Yes!” Yuchan said, slinging the bag over his shoulders. His mother suddenly frowned at something and Yuchan worried again.

“Did you throw your shoe at the ceiling?” She asked, bewildered.

“What?” Yuchan looked up to see a dirty footprint on the ceiling above his bed. His heart flipped when he realized it could have only come from Sehyoon, which meant that he hadn’t dreamed the monsters from last night up after all! “Oh. Oh, yeah!” He tried to keep the smile off his face and look appropriately guilty.

“Why on earth would you do that?” His mother asked, putting her hands on her hips. Yuchan gulped.

“There was a spider up there!” He lied quickly, fiddling with the straps of his backpack, “I’m sorry.”

His mother just shook her head though. “Don’t do that again. Next time find a newspaper or a magazine. Better yet, call your father or I, and we’ll deal with it. Now come on. We’re going to be running late if we wait too much longer!”

“Yes!” he hurried to follow his mother out the door and down the stairs to the garage. As he buckled into his seat, he glanced up at the window to his room. Yuchan smiled, hoping the monsters under his bed would come back again.


End file.
